Aquapocalypse

From the door of the White Hen Pantry on Cambridge Street.

Boston

May 2, 2010

The cliche that you don't realize how important something is until you don't have it rings true time and time again.

Yesterday in Boston, residents were suddenly told mid-day that the water coming out of their taps was no longer safe to drink. The main aqueduct bringing drinking water to Boston from the west sprang a significant leak, cutting off supply to the city and several other towns in eastern Massachusetts.

The impact is being felt in ways one would not imagine. No one is selling coffee today; apparently every store has coffee makers with hard-wired water supplies. Last night, the bartender at the Aquitaine in the South End juggled a pitcher of water as she meticulously washed her tools; she could not use the sink or the spritzer that serves soft drinks. I boiled water late last night; I could not brush my teeth without a water source.

Certainly things could be a lot worse, especially if public officials and City employees were not as responsive as they were, distributing information about the water issue (even if they did use memos, like the one above, with rather interesting spellings). Boston Transportation Department vehicles drove the streets last night using loudspeakers to inform residents.

It's when things like this happen that I wonder what it would be like if other things I took for granted just suddenly weren't available. Certainly there are the staples of living; water being one of them. But what about other more modern amenities that are pretty important? I always think first about cell phones. What would life be like without a cell phone? It's the subject of another much longer post.